This past week marked the point in my life when I officially
am closer to turning 40 than I am to the point when I turned 39. With that in mind, I found my ole’ buddy
Jimmy to help work through my crisis.
What I found was something altogether different…
Pirate Looks At 40:
What do you do when your skill set is not valued?
When I was in college, and throughout my 20’s, I caught
Buffet fever and envisioned a comfortable life filled with warm weather and
margaritas. Furthermore, the lyrics to
his 1970’s song ring true. In the
paragraphs below I will parse through them and reveal my circumstances.
“…Wanted to sail upon your waters
since I was three feet tall…”
since I was three feet tall…”
I grew up with a father who spent his life in sales, sales
training, and sales management. Not that all three are mutually exclusive, but
I did have the pleasure of being on the job with him on several occasions and
heard the stories from his salesmen about his training and development
initiatives. One such initiative was to
have his men read a book on dressing for success. Combine this outlook with a mother who
instilled etiquette and good manners, I was well on my way to conducting myself
professionally.
“Yes, I am a pirate
Two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over forty victim of fate; arriving too late
Arriving too late.”
Two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over forty victim of fate; arriving too late
Arriving too late.”
I went on to earn two Bachelors Degrees and a Masters
Degree. These credentials combined with
a good upbringing prepared me for success.
But just like the lyrics, I arrived too late. The common decency and
business structures of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s gave way to angst, abruptness,
and a shortened attention span of the 90’s, 00’s, and the beginning part of
this decade. All the devices that are
designed to bring us closer together, have resulted in private conversations
and communications and heads looking at their laps instead of looking at others
around them.
It use to be that you would be introduced to someone. You never walked up and introduced yourself,
rather a mutual party would provide an introduction. Of course this added a hurdle, especially to
a sales person, who would have to do business with individuals. However a professional sales person would
seek out a mutual connection and receive that introduction. Over the years, this custom has
disappeared. People will walk up and
introduce themselves and the person being sought out doesn’t punish this
behavior, but ignores the etiquette and rewards the act. Right now you are probably thinking, “what
century is this person living in?” I am
just arriving too late.
That being said, LinkedIn
does provide for this social grace. Have
you taken advantage of it? Social Media
makes it easier to connect with others and you can do it in a professional way.
“I made enough money to buy Miami
Never meant to last, never meant to last”
Never meant to last, never meant to last”
Yes, I have had financial success and financial
failure. Looking back it would have been
nice to have the “slow and steady wins the race” mentality but it is not
me. I like to think I am cautiously
risky. I understand the risk, choose to
accept it or decline it. I have known
people that have made and lost their fortune 3 or 4 times in their life. The way I see it, I am halfway there.
“I go for younger women, lived
with several awhile
Though I ran 'em away, they'd come back one day
Still could manage to smile”
Though I ran 'em away, they'd come back one day
Still could manage to smile”
I have been married and divorced.
Over the past decade you could call me a serial monogamist. Approaching 40 and having the notion of
children, I suppose younger women are in the cards. It is just amazing how this song does seem to
mimic my life.
“My
occupational hazard being that my occupation’s just not around”
And we come to the point where we finish with where we
began. My upbringing, education,
experience, and skill set is such that my occupation is just not around. However I can’t end this on such a down and
out tone. My occupational hazard is true
in that my occupation is just not around, but not because it is relegated to the
past. It is being recreated in the
offspring of technology. The “old” ways
have value, but need to be brought into the “new” ways of conducting business.
For 18 years now I have been a student of Business & Professional
Development. I embraced electronic
communication from its earliest uses and have adapted it and other new media
for Business Development purposes. So if
your endeavor needs a more polished, professional image or if your sales and
client relations could benefit from an Organizational Behavior Analysis along
with Professional training and development, feel free to contact me. You know where I’ll be…
“gonna head
uptown”
